CDs:
Alias – Pitch Black Prism CD/LP (Anticon)
Every year requires winter records—those sounds one reaches for when cyclical freeze triggers a craving for icy synthesizers and sinister drums. This is where one finds Alias’s Pitch Black Prism, an alternately bleak and beautiful album built for headphones and hailstorms. Few places boast a more severe climate than Maine, the artist’s home state, with its ominous forests and jagged coastlines. Listeners can feel the climate and geography exerting brutal force to the contours of Pitch Black Prism. It’s little wonder Alias’s closest stylistic peers are Burial, Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin—all of whom hail from England, land of the cadaver-colored sky.
Allegaeon – Elements Of The Infinite CD (Metal Blade)
Allegaeon was formed in 2008 by founding member and guitar player Ryan Glisan. Soon thereafter, classically trained guitarist Greg Burgess joined, followed by vocalist Ezra Haynes and bassist Corey Archuleta to round out and form what people have come to know now as the Colorado kings of melodic metal.
Alraune – The Process Of Self-Immolation CD (Profound Lore)
Alraune is a new black metal band based out of Nashville, TN. Complex and twisted, Alraune’s vicious yet progressive style puts them alongside such American black metal bands as Ash Borer, Fell Voices, Negative Plane, Wolves In The Throne Room, Leviathan, Avichi and Krallice.
Arc – Umbra CD (DiN)
Arc is Ian Boddy (also DiN label boss) and Mark Shreeve, two veterans of the UK electronic music scene. Their music is deeply routed in the traditions of the German synthesizer music of the ‘70s and as such they employ a vast range of vintage analogue equipment not the least of which is Shreeve’s massive Moog IIIC modular system.
Auroch – Taman Shud CD (Profound Lore)
Formed in 2008, Vancouver, BC’s Auroch are poised to bear the flag of Canadian death metal chaos alongside likeminded bands of the new generation Mitochondrion (vocalist/guitarist Shawn Haché and live-lineup bassist Sebastian Montesi both play in Auroch), Antediluvian and Chthe’ilist. It’s a tradition stretching from the legendary and still-active Gorguts back to the mid-’90s heydays of Cryptopsy and Kataklysm.
